Page 2 of King of Malice
He spins on me, his face twisted in rage. “Shut the fuck up or you’ll be next.”
I shrink back down in her bed as Al storms from the room and slams the door behind him. I wait for a second, two, to make sure he doesn’t come back in the room. Then I’m off the bed. “Cadence?”
She gives a low moan and a little of the tension in my chest unwinds. I jump back on my bed, wrapping her in my arms. “Oh Cadence, tell me you’re all right.”
“Someday, I’ll make him pay,” she says, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth.
I squeeze her tightly. I wish she wouldn’t bait our foster fathers like that. It’s going to be so difficult to get put in another placetogether. Maybe I can beg Al tomorrow to let us stay. But it’s probably too late.
If we have to leave, we have to leave. Cadence is my only family now, and where she goes, I go.
I push up, trying to assess her bruises in the dark. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop him?—”
She grimaces, turning over, away from me. “You’re a good girl, Ava. It’s not your style.”
My heart seizes in my chest. Does she wish I’d fight for us more? Guilt makes me curl away. “I’d do anything for you.”
She doesn’t answer as she wipes more of the blood dripping down her chin.
CHAPTER ONE
Ava
I step off the bus,the stop only a block from my office building, and pull my phone from my purse.
Dialing the phone, I huff a breath of impatience even as I straighten my skirt, striding down the crowded Vegas thoroughfare. This time of day, the tourists aren’t clogging up the sidewalks as much as the army of workers coming off a night of work, or the ones starting the day-shift. But either way, they hustle, jostling each other and me as they pass.
I can’t bother with the irritation, my attention on willing Cadence to finally pick up her phone.
The line rings several times before it goes to voicemail. My eye close for a split second, my fingers touching the locket around my neck. “Cadence,” I beg into the phone. “It’s been days. Where are you? Call me…” I hesitate. “I’m worried.”
I frown as I hang up, rubbing the worn locket between my fingers. It’s not the first time Cadence has gone missing. I should be better at controllingthe panic by now.
She usually resurfaces after an epic binge of some kind or another.
But I thought those days had passed. That she’d cleaned up and was ready to live a straight, healthy life. She’d taken a job as a receptionist at a small company that I placed her in myself.
Then again, I’m pretty sure she and her latest boyfriend had an epic breakup, which never fails to send her on a path to self-destruction.
Frowning, I enter the lobby of my office, the air conditioning instantly cooling my skin.
At twenty-five, I’ve been working here since I was nineteen when I first applied to be one of the temps. I impressed the intake officer enough to get referred to HR, where I did a short stint in the nanny department before I was placed on staff instead.
I managed to get a college degree at night, while working full-time, while I also worked my way up the ranks at one of the largest agencies in the country.
Another city probably wouldn’t support a temp agency of this size, but in Vegas, temporary positions are big business.
With the number of workers needed to run the tourist industry, every company, big or small, uses us for staffing.
I run one of our smallest departments, nannies. My boss has hinted about giving me a bigger sector, but I’m happy with the work I do and don’t want to change.
Placing hired nannies with the right family is a job for which I feel intimately acquainted, and I work tirelessly to get it right. And while technically we’re a temp agency, the percentage of employees who take on permanent positions from our placements is amazingly high.
So, every placement is done with care, and I place all nannies with the expectation they’ll stay in their positions.
I smile at the receptionists and make my way up the elevator, bypassing the kitchen on my floor, to make my way straight to my desk.
Setting my bag with my lunch on the surface, I pick up my work phone, dialing the small insurance company where I placed Cadence sixmonths ago.
